The suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, is constitutionally entitled to unfettered access to his attorneys and family members, and the Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the DSS have been instructed to immediately provide him such access.
Following President Bola Tinubu’s Friday evening suspension of Emefiele, the DSS detained him on Saturday.
Following an appeal by J.B. Daudu SAN, counsel for Emefiele, Justice Hamza Muazu of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court sitting in Maitama Abuja on Friday issued the ruling.
He told the court that he had sent letters to the DSS, particularly on June 14, asking for more guidance from them, but that the DSS had declined to answer the request.
However, I. Awo, the attorney for the second and third respondents, told the court that the DSS did not have a history of turning down such requests and that doing so was improper.
While counsel for the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation did not object to the application, he expressed confidence that the security agency would follow the court’s ruling and permit access to the named attorneys and Emefiele’s family members to see him.
Another development was that the Office of the AGF and the DSS’s legal representatives asked for an extension of time to submit their responses to the originating motion. This request was granted, and the case was further postponed until Tuesday, June 19, when the substantive lawsuit would be heard.